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News

Always in style

Haircuts may come and go, but UC salon's ties to family, 
community remain

by BLAKE WHITAKER
The Daily Cougar

This is the first in a four part series profiling establishments in the University Center leading up to its 40th Anniversary Celebration starting Feb. 12.

When students take a seat in the small salon in the University Center, they may not realize they've become part of 40 years of UH history.

That history begins with Robert Marlin III, a traditional barber drawn to the possibilities a university setting offered. He left a secure position as a part owner of a downtown business often patronized by Houston's elite to ply his trade at UH.

"He decided to go out to the University kind of as a lark. He wasn't sure how good it was going to be," his son Robert Marlin IV said. "Once he was here, he fell in love with it."

His establishment, the UC Barber Shop, opened in 1967 and was among the first businesses to call the UC home. In a time when barber and beauty shops were more strictly segregated, Marlin's shop was a place where male students, faculty and staff stopped by for hair cuts, shaves or shoe shines in between classes and meetings, though female customers were welcome as well.

Marlin quickly became a fixture in the campus scene. He was a regular at football games and a strong supporter of UH athletics -- one season, he held raffles to fly a Cougar football fan to every away game. 

Marlin was getting his name out when he was raffling plane tickets, giving Shasta the live mascot a complimentary cut or letting sorority members shine shoes for charity in his shop, but it was never just about publicity.

"He was a supporter of all of UH. I've gotten hundreds of letters from organizations that he gave shampoos to, or free services to," said Marlin IV, who shined shoes at the UC Barber Shop when he was in his early teens. 

After nearly 20 years, Marlin decided to hang up his shears. He left the University in 1985 and founded Blue Marlin Sailing School.

That year, the younger Marlin put his education at the University on hold, took over the shop and changed the name to Ossian's, a family name. The new place looked a bit different and now catered to men and women, but its connection to UH was the same.

"We had a fabulous business over there for years and years and years," Marlin IV said.

The new owner maintained many of his father's most important business practices.

"My dad tried to keep our prices about seven or eight years behind the standard because of the student clientele," he said. "You had to make that up by working with volume."

Marlin said that often made it hard to find experienced stylists. "(We told prospective stylists), ‘You'll work twice as hard, but you'll like it more,'" he said.

That held true -- Marlin said in a time when the average turnover rate for stylists was eight months, his employees stayed at Ossian's for an average of seven years.

Economics stepped in to break the family chain, however. In 1995, the space for Ossian's went up for bid, as retail spaces in the UC periodically do. Fantastic Sam's outbid Marlin for the rights to use the spot next to the entrance to the UC Underground.

Marlin said he could have held on to the shop, but by the time he would have paid off the new loans, the space would have been up for bid again.

"It had come to the point where it was more work than what it was worth," said Marlin, who is now a history Ph.D. candidate working in Special Collections in the M.D. Anderson Library. "As much as we wanted to stay, from a business standpoint it didn't make any sense."

Having sound business sense was little comfort, however.

"I didn't go (to the shop that replaced Ossian's). It was too painful," Marlin said. "I didn't go over there for probably close to 10 years."

However, the shop remains connected to the Marlin family. It is now called Jonorr's, and its owner, Joan Orr, was hired by Marlin back in the Ossian's days.

Orr, who took ownership of the shop after Fantastic Sam's left in 2002, also grew close to the University community.

"The campus -- it's home. It's a homey thing for me," she said. "It's a good place, the students are really cool, and I feel pretty connected to them."

Besides offering hair cuts, waxing, manicures and other services, Orr takes pride in being a sort of school nurse for beauty issues.

"I keep this student emergency kit, because they come in and ask for all different things. (They say), ‘I think I can get this from Joan.' Somebody's going to come in for something, both girls and guys," she said. "I have little razors in there, I have deodorant, I keep little samples of lipstick, lotion for the skin, safety pins. I'm not kidding, the whole nine yards. Buttons and needles and thread.

"That gives you an idea of what kind of relationship (I have with the students)."

Orr will have to continue writing her chapter of the shop's story without one of its central characters, however. Bill Springer retired in December after nearly 40 years of barbering in the UC.

Springer was the last barber Marlin III hired when he opened the shop in 1967, and the 74-year-old developed a reputation as a skilled barber and a good listener.

"People respected me and showed me affection, and everybody made me feel like I was part of the University," he said. "I was just a barber, but they made me feel like I was special."

"I enjoyed going to work every day," Springer said. "I miss it. I miss it right now. … My customers, UH, everybody … they've made my life, 40 years of it, a wonderful experience." 

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